Critical Reception
When first released, the staff at Variety magazine liked the film and wrote, "Hayworth is photographed most beguilingly. The producers have created nothing subtle in the projection of her s.a., and that's probably been wise. Glenn Ford is the vis-a-vis, in his first picture part in several years...Gilda is obviously an expensive production — and shows it. The direction is static, but that's more the fault of the writers."
More recently, Emanuel Levy wrote a positive review: "Featuring Rita Hayworth in her best-known performance, Gilda, released just after the end of WWII, draws much of its peculiar power from its mixture of genres and the way its characters interact with each other...Gilda was a cross between a hardcore noir adventure of the 1940s and the cycle of "women's pictures." Imbued with a modern perspective, the film is quite remarkable in the way it deals with sexual issues."
The review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes reported that 93% of critics gave the film a positive review, based on fifteen reviews.
The film was entered into the 1946 Cannes Film Festival, the first time the festival was held.
Read more about this topic: Gilda
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